The Midland family of the man killed by an overseas doctor on an out-of-hours call has said it will be continuing legal action against medical groups and governments to stop it ever happening again.

And their Birmingham lawyer said they would be taking their fight to the European courts in an attempt to get justice.

A week ago a tribunal found that David Gray had been killed unlawfully by Dr Daniel Ubani after he gave him an injection of diamorphine, ten times the size of the recommended maximum dose

Dr Ubani was on his first-ever shift in the UK having arrived in the UK the day before to work for independent healthcare provider Take Care Now, and later admitted that he had no knowledge of the drug.

The police tried to arrest Dr Ubani, but where rebuffed by the legal authorities in Germany, where he had fled. Germany refused to extradite the doctor, instead trying him and giving him a fine and suspended sentence.

Mr Gray’s son, Dr Stuart Gray, from Kidderminster, has been pursuing legal action after what he called an “endemic attitude of defensiveness, deflection of blame and evasion of responsibility and accountability for actions”. He has been supported by a legal team from Birmingham law firm Anthony Collins.

They cannot pursue criminal action against Dr Ubani, because German ‘double jeopardy’ rules mean the process ends with the suspended sentence.

But they are now carrying out a civil action against the doctor, the Cambridgeshire PCT and Take Care Now, as well as turning to the European Court of Human Rights.

Inez Brown, the Birmingham-based lawyer at Anthony Collins who represented the family at the tribunal, said: “They have lodged a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights, because they feel their human rights have been violated by the UK and the Federal Republic of Germany.

“This case raises extremely serious issues about criminal activities of a doctor in another member state. The Germans originally said they weren’t going to get involved because the doctor didn’t do anything in their country.

“But when the British police started to collect evidence and went to Germany, the German authorities refused to extradite. They even charged €5,000 by way of court fees. Had the British police been able to charge him they would have charged him with corporate manslaughter and he would have spent time in jail in the UK.”

The coroner at the tribunal made a number of recommendations for the Government to change regulations on the provision of out-of-hours care.

And Ms Brown said she was optimistic these recommendations would be adopted, and could mean a change in regulations.